Crystal in Huntsville, Alabama, wonders about the expression See you in the funny papers, which her in-laws use when tucking the grandkids into bed. See you in the funny papers, See you in the funny pages, See you in the funnies, and See you in the...
Tom in Tallahassee, Florida, wonders why he and his fellow buddies called the store on a ship the gedunk, also geedunk, and also applied the word to the sweets and other goodies they purchased there. As Paul Dickson notes in his book War Slang, some...
Ever notice how many comic-book villains have names ending in the letter O? For starters, there’s Magneto, Sinestro, and Bizarro. Quiz Guy John Chaneski’s puzzle features new villains with names that are common words ending in -o. For example, who’s...
A listener in Brazil wants to know about the source of the phrase keeping up with the Joneses, which refers to trying to compete with others in terms of possessions and social status. This expression was popularized by a comic strip with the same...
Nerd used to be a term of derision, connoting someone who was socially awkward and obsessed with a narrow field of interest. Now it’s used more admiringly for anyone who has a passion for a particular topic. Linguists call that type of softening...
Khaled in Youngstown, Ohio, is designing an album cover for his band’s latest release and wants to use a grawlix, a string of symbols that stands in for profanity. Beetle Bailey cartoonist Mort Walker coined the term in his 1980 book The Lexicon of...
